Stray Dogs or Stray Darts

East Bali Woman Hospitalized After Being Hit by Poisonous Dart Intended for Stray Dog.

(4/30/2011) While Bali is gradually turning its rabies control strategies away from elimination to vaccination, there are still many areas of the island where free-roaming dogs are captured and euthanized.

On Monday, April 25, 2011, a 33-year-old woman, Ni Ketut Widari, from the village of Semaagung, Klungkung was rushed to the hospital after being struck by a poison dart misfired by an official of the local animal control agency.

Widari was struck in the shoulder by a poison dart filled with strychnine while sitting on her front porch watching officials using blow pipes to propel poison darts on roaming herds of street dogs. Shortly after 1:30 pm the woman suffered a poison dart wound that caused he to collapse before being taken to the General Hospital in Klungkung.

After a visit to the village the animal control officials who swept Semaagun tallied a total of 3 dead dogs and one woman recovering in the local hospital from strychnine poisoning.

The dosage suffered by the woman is usually sufficient to cause death in a dog within 15 minutes.

Fortunately, in the case of Ni Ketut Widari, she only suffered general weakness and was allowed to return home from the hospital after a few days stay.